He was viewing a town from a broom high in the air above, and below him twenty dementors were sweeping excitedly from side to side. Harry felt like he had just swallowed an ice cube as the feeling of cold he always got when the dementors were near, swept through his body. He felt his mouth contort and the word ‘go’ seep from it; a thin, white and spidery hand pointed at the bustling street below. Within seconds the dementors rushed down to the unsuspecting people who were spilling out of closing pubs and clubs. Screams filled the air as the terrified people stared at the unfamiliar creatures that were now bearing down on them. People ran in all directions, tripping over each other in the process; all sense of chivalry was lost as men pushed women out of their paths.
Within minutes those who hadn’t been able to run had been subjected to the dementor’s kiss; dozens of people now lay sprawled on the street their empty eyes wide in fear and the mouths moving soundlessly. Harry looked up and down the street and saw that some of those who had tried to run were frozen in their tracks. He looked to his right and left to see roughly two dozen Death Eaters flying around him. He let out a loud, howling cackle and pointed his broom down sharply; he landed softly and began striding up the street.
There were blinding flashes of light everywhere; the dark sky was lit with all the colours of the rainbow as the members of the crowd who were still living were subjected to a variety of curses. He watched as a Death Eater, who sounded suspiciously like Goyle, used the Imperious Curse on one woman, forcing her to run in to a wall over and over again. Harry flinched when the frenzied laughter escaped him. He saw several flashes of bright green light and trembling figures fell to the ground. A young girl of eighteen or nineteen was quivering in a corner; a Death Eater grabbed her and subjected her to a horrific and degrading attack before he finally killed her.
The crouching figure of Wormtail shadowed his every move and when he reached out his pale finger and pointed at a raven-haired man. Peter immediately hurried forward and pulled the man roughly towards the Dark Lord. When the hand next appeared in his scope of vision it had a long wand in it, Lord Voldemort’s wand. ‘Imperio!’ he whispered dangerously. The man instantaneously dropped to his knees, bowed over and kissed the hem of Voldemort’s robes.
In the next instant he had risen to his feet and was hurrying towards a red haired woman who was trying to hide behind a large metal bin, he pulled her from her hiding place by her hair and began to strangle her. The poor girl struggled for a moment before her features turned a very unnatural colour and then she became lifeless. He removed the spell and the man was left hold the flaccid woman by her throat, he looked at her horrified before he dropped her body out of sheer terror. When he looked back at Voldemort the green flash collided with his chest and the man was dead as well.
Only forty miles away Harry was woken by the searing pain in his scar.
He rolled over to the edge of his bed and vomited vigorously over the side. He was about to grab his pendant when his cousin came bursting into his room regardless.
“Did you see what happened, Harry?” she asked urgently. She pointed her wand at the pool of sick on the floor and made it disappear.
“How did you know?” he barely managed to say before he surrendered to another wave of sickness. In a kind, motherly gesture Ellie rubbed her hand over his back in circles, gripped his upper arm to prevent him falling off the bed and whispered ‘It’s all right, Harry,’ soothingly in his ear.
“My scar felt like it was on fire,” she answered when he finally stopped. “I heard you scream and assumed you had seen what I had felt.”
“It was awful, really bad. There must be a hundred Muggles or more dead; you need to get the Order straightaway.”
“Get yourself dressed. I’ll see you down in the kitchen in a minute.” She raised her wand and something silvery shot out of the end, he couldn’t remember where he had seen that happen before, and with a pop she disappeared from the room. Harry dressed as quickly as he could without making himself nauseous and almost walked straight in to Remus on the landing.
“Is everything all right, Harry? You look terrible,” he said gripping him with concern.
“I had another vision. Ellie’s getting everyone in.” Harry had to lean back against the wall as he was starting to feel dizzy again.
“What happened?”
“I’d rather only have to relive it once, if you don’t mind?”
“Of course, I understand, Harry. Come along.” Remus helped him down the stairs and into the kitchen where Order members were already running out of the fire in their dressing gowns. Some of the women still had curlers in their hair.
“What is Potter doing here?” Professor Snape demanded, stepping out of the fire.
“He had a vision, Severus, so you had better watch your tone!” Ellie said angrily from behind him. She had just Apparated there milliseconds before. “My grandfather will be here in just a second, he was sending word to Mad-Eye and Kingsley when I left. Are you feeling better now?” she asked Harry as she sat down next to him.
“A little,” he lied. Molly came bulldozing in to the kitchen with her wand out.
“What’s the matter? What’s happened?” she asked in a panic.
“Harry had a vision, Molly. Have you got any Calming Draught?” Ellie said calmly.
“Give me just a second and I’ll whip some up,” the mother hen then immediately began to busy herself at the stove.
“I shall assist,” Professor Snape said, rather affronted that Ellie had not asked him for the draught.
“Remus, could you pop upstairs and get Harry’s Pensieve? I have a feeling it might be a better idea for him to put his dream in there instead of having to tell us all,” Ellie now spoke to her godfather. With a pop he disappeared and reappeared a second later with Harry’s stone Pensieve in his hands. Ellie nodded at Harry and he extracted the thought from his temple and deposited it in the bowl where it began to swirl enchantingly.
Molly popped a cup full of steaming liquid into his right hand and encouraged him to sip it slowly. As soon as Dumbledore arrived, Harry prodded the contents of Pensieve and the figures from his dream rose out of it and the battle began. Gasps went around the room as it progressed with several of the women looking close to tears and the men looking thoroughly disgusted. Despite Mrs. Weasley’s top-notch potion, seeing it all again made him feel nauseous. Remus must have sensed this because he conjured a bowl seconds before Harry once again began to throw up spectacularly. He flushed with embarrassment at having shown such weakness in front of so many people, more importantly in front of Snape and Mad-Eye. Snape would just use it to ridicule him and Mad-Eye would be disappointed that he wasn’t made of sterner stuff. “I’m sorry,” he slurred, trying to rid his mouth of the taste by gulping large amounts from the cup in his hand.
“Don’t worry, sonny, the first time you have to see it is always the hardest and better out than in I say,” Moody reassured him.
“Thanks,” Harry replied hoarsely. He saw Ellie give Moody a grateful smile, she too looked close to being sick and Charlie had a death grip on her hand.
“Mundungus, it is quite possible that you know London better than any other person in this room. Could you perhaps suggest a location?” Dumbledore said after considering what he had seen.
“Look’d like Brixton to me.” It was a sign of just how heinous the crimes were that even Dung looked revolted.
“Thank you. Kingsley, would you like to take a deputation there and assess the situation. You may have to contact the Obliviators,” Dumbledore said calmly.
“I’ll return as soon as I can with an update,” Kingsley said in his deep composed voice.
“Please do. Alastor, Tonks, Minerva, and Mundungus, would you please accompany Kingsley? The rest of you should return home and dress in the event that you are needed later,” the headmaster advised. Everyone began to leave the kitchen, some queuing up for the fire, some Apparating, some taking Portkey’s and others leaving via the front door. “You would probably be best going back to bed, Harry, I will have Elizabeth wake you when we get some news.”
“I’ll come with you; I’ve got a vial of potion for a dreamless sleep if you’d like it?” Ellie asked as she escorted him back to his room. On the landing she said ‘Accio!’ as quietly as she could to avoid waking the other sleeping members of the household. Harry changed back into his pyjamas while he was waiting.
“I’m not sure that I want to go back to sleep,” he said shakily. “What if it happens again?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be right here.” She produced a comfortable chair right beside his bed. He swallowed the potion she gave him in one gulp and began to feel drowsy the second it touched his lips. He felt her tucking his blankets in around him and heard her assuring Mrs. Weasley that he was settled. As he began to drift towards sleep he heard the voice of another person in the room, he vaguely recognised it as Professor Dumbledore.
“How are you, Elizabeth?” he asked.
“I hate seeing him like this,” she replied sadly.
“That doesn’t really answer my question.”
“I’ll be fine, so will Harry. Did Severus know anything about what happened tonight?”
“He had heard rumours here and there but nothing confirmed, he seems to have fallen through the ranks of the Death Eaters in recent weeks.”
“Why?”
“I fear it is because of you. I have reason to believe that Voldemort may be aware of the situation regarding your mother and this has lead to doubts over whether Severus’s loyalty lies with you and your mother’s blood or with Voldemort and his cause,” Dumbledore said gravely. If Voldemort didn’t trust Snape it made having a spy amongst the Death Eaters virtually pointless and potentially dangerous.
“And where does Severus’s loyalty lie?” she asked sceptically.
“Both you and I know the answer to that question,” Dumbledore said firmly.
“Just because I know the answer doesn’t mean I have to like it,” she said bitterly.
“Naturally,” Dumbledore replied with a slight smile evident in his voice. But Harry didn’t hear anymore because he was overcome with deep, steady and calming sleep.
When he woke a few hours later Ellie was dozing in the chair by his bed. The slight noise of him reaching for his glasses was enough to wake her. “How are you feeling?” she mumbled sleepily.
“A lot better, has there been any news?”
“Kingsley came back an hour or so after you came back to bed. The street was a disaster zone they found ten people still alive, three were insane, four were suffering from severe blood loss and the other three were frightened beyond belief, the Obliviators had a tough job making them forget it all. Dobby’s making breakfast, I promised Molly that I’d make you go down and eat something.” She got rid of her chair and left him alone to change.
The air in the kitchen was angst ridden. Bill, Charlie, and Remus were sitting at the table looking extremely tense. Several well-thumbed copies of the Daily Prophet’s morning edition lay discarded in a heap in the centre of the table. Occasionally one of the men would shoot it an anxious glance before returning to staring at their mugs of tea. Harry picked up one of the copies as soon as he sat down; the front page bore an artist’s impression of dementors sweeping down in to a street and people running in terror.
Carnage as You-Know-Who, Death Eaters and dementors attack Muggle partygoers.
There was mayhem, death and destruction last night as You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters unleashed twenty dementors on a Muggle street. The tragedy unfolded on a street in the borough of Brixton, near London, at two thirty this morning. The street is well known for its large number of Muggle pubs and dance clubs, hundreds of people spilled on to the street at closing time only to be descended upon by the terrifying creatures and a handful of Death Eaters.
Some of the unfortunate victims were subjected to the dementor’s kiss while others were dispatched of using the unforgivable ‘Avada Kedavra’. Poor unsuspecting girls were subject to harrowing attacks that would be unsuitable to detail in a family paper, but it is sufficient to say that they were revolting and repulsive crimes carried out by the vilest of our kind.
Of the estimated three hundred people that were in the street at the time approximately forty got away and Ministry sources estimate that only ten people were alive when Aurors reached the scene, four of whom were in critical conditions having lost huge amounts of blood through cuts made by a Severing Spell. It is rumoured that the others were driven mad by the experience and are now in a ward at St Mungo’s Hospital, London. The Ministry is expected to make an official statement later on today.
Turn to page 2 for eyewitness accounts from Mr Jeffrey Screwton and Ms Geraldine Turnbull who live on the street of the chaotic event.’
He flicked through the pages of the paper, most of them were taken up by supposedly eyewitness accounts, more rumours of what happened, the details of who to contact at the Ministry if you either had information or thought a family member might have been present and yet more advice on how to protect yourself from attack. He threw it back on the pile with dismay, their advice was useless “ if a Death Eater turned up on the doorstep of some poor wizard family and decided to kill them then there could be no defence. “Have the Ministry made their statement yet?”
“No, Minister Bones is still in talks with Dumbledore, Arthur and Kingsley about what to say, they should be out within the hour,” Remus answered.
“There’s not really much they can do or say is there?” Charlie asked.
“No, it’ll be working out what to tell the Muggles that’ll cause the most problems. It’s not going to be easy to try and make and excuse for that many deaths,” Bill replied.
“What are they going to say?” Harry asked.
“Arthur was talking about something to do with these drug things so many of the Muggle youngsters are doing…” Molly answered with some confusion.
“I think even the most oblivious Muggles aren’t going to swallow that one,” Bill said cynically.
“Unfortunately it’s the best that we can do, none of the buildings were destroyed and it might have been a bit better if they had, at least then it could have gone down as a gas explosion or something.” Remus knew that this wasn’t really a productive line of thought.
“We just have to be thankful that more people didn’t die,” Molly said but there was no conviction in her voice.
“No, we have to be thankful that they didn’t decide on a target any closer to us,” Remus said grimly.
A/N: I decided to get the death and destruction going earlier in this fic, I think that was what my last one lacked. The next chapter is rather ominously titled…Graves.
I hope it’s with you all soon!